Had enough of struggling to read documents with your iPhone?

Whoever you are, scanning letters on mobile can give such poor results.

News and FAQs

We now have versions of the Giraffe Reader that fit iPhones all the way up to the 6 Plus version. Many thanks for your patience while we were working on developing those.

If you are an iPad or Android phone user, please email us. Camera positions can vary quite a lot according to phone models but current reader designs could be used.

Buy now

The Giraffe Reader currently costs 32 Pounds within the UK, 42 Euros in Europe and 52 Dollars for the rest of the world. Postage is free worldwide as it is classed as "an article for the blind".

We have been experiencing a lot of demand recently, so we are currently able to ship Giraffe Readers within about a week of ordering. If you need your reader shipped out sooner than this then please email.

You can use your card or Paypal account to purchase online. If you would prefer another payment method (such as paying over the phone) just contact us.

What is the Giraffe Reader?

Durable

It feels like corrugated cardboard, but it's actually a 100% plastic equivalent. Made from PolyPropylene it is durable and waterproof, and can be used thousands of times.

Portable

Folding so small it fits into an A4 envelope, the Giraffe Reader can fit into a handbag or satchel, fit through the letterbox, and nestle in a corner by your favourite chair.

Inclusive Design

Unlike StandScan, it's designed from the start to include blind people. It has tactile markings to help folding, and a solid cradle at the top to hold your iPhone steady.

Steps to erect

The Giraffe Reader is designed so you can erect it eyes-free, first time, straight out of the box. Just follow these simple steps below.

First, please sit at a table or desk with plenty of space - a dining table would be perfect. Take it out of the A4 envelope it arrived in, and you'll find it is slightly larger than a DVD case.

At this stage it is folded into 3. Unfold outwards once, and then unfold a second time in the other direction. I.e. if you unfolded the first time outward to the left hand side, then the second unfolding will unfold from the centre out to the right hand side. If you're having trouble unfolding the first time, there's a thumb-sized notch in one of the sides- use that to unfold from. Lay it flat on the table completely unfolded.

Next flip the whole thing over, towards you, so that it's the other way up. Now look for some ring shaped tactile stickers, about as big as polo mints, facing upwards at either end. You should find one sticker at one end, and a pair of stickers at the other end. The part with the pair of stickers will become the base of the Giraffe, while the single sticker will become the cradle that the iPhone sits inside.

Place your thumbs on the tactile stickers, and place your fingers behind the plastic so they are opposing your thumbs. Now rotate your hands towards each other as if you were closing a book, aiming for the stickers to now be directly facing one another. You'll find that the side with the single sticker goes more easily at first, and the side with two stickers will fold up afterwards. Keep going until the stickers face each other, and you should feel some magnets snap together.

At this stage you'll have a long, thin, open-topped box. Squeeze the longer sides towards each other, and you might feel some more magnets snap together if they haven't already done so. This long, open topped box is actually the neck of the Giraffe. Now flip it onto its base, so that the pair of stickers is facing us. Your iPhone should sit nicely in the cradle at the top of the neck. Position the Giraffe in front of you so that the neck's open side is away from you. In this position the iPhone sits nicely in the cradle facing up, with the home button closest to you and the phone's camera pointing down at the base.

Now continue to the How to do Scanning instructions here.

Steps to scan

The Giraffe Reader works with a wide range of OCR apps, but we've had the greatest success with Prizmo (for reading letters and books) and Text Detective (to read business cards). Text Grabber comes a close second behind Prizmo sometimes giving better results, so get both if you can. We advise against using SayText, ImageToText or Perfect OCR, as they've given us poorer results. We also found Text Detective struggled with books or A4 pages, so we'd only recommend it for business cards right now.

More instructions will be uploaded soon - apologies that the site is still under construction, but check out the audio-described video for the rest of the steps.